Chapter 20
Lettie was late but not by too much. One of the hedge cutters had broken down on the farm and her father had spent a long time showing her how to fix it, concerned she might not remember when it happened again. He had then explained about the farm workers who lived in accommodation on her uncle’s farm.
‘Remember, if you have any issues with staff just speak to Uncle Leonard. He’ll make sure you have enough people each day to cover any harvesting or packing, but as we’ve pretty much finished with the potato season for now, things should be a lot quieter for you while I’m away.’
Lettie wasn’t sure how happy she was about this. ‘How am I supposed to prove myself then, if most of the work has been done?’
He laughed. ‘Don’t worry, there’s plenty with the livestock and planting to keep you on your toes until I’m back and there’ll be fruit to harvest around the time I’m due back here.’
Satisfied with this information, Lettie went to help her mother who was struggling to make final choices between three evening dresses so that she could finish her packing.
Finally, showered and dressed in jeans and a smarter T-shirt, Lettie walked into the pub. She smiled a hello to the landlord before scanning the room and seeing Joe sitting at a table, his hand raised to indicate where he was.
She gave a nod and passing two girls she didn’t know on the nearest table, sat down. ‘Sorry I’ve kept you waiting.’
‘It’s fine. There’s so much going on in here that I’m happy to people-watch.’
She spotted one of the girls with a neat, dark bob giving Joe the occasional look and wasn’t surprised. He was hot, although in a different way to Brodie. Where Joe was dark-haired with a mischievous glint in his eyes, giving a sense that he might do something unexpected any moment, Brodie’s hair had a sun-kissed lightness about it. He was muscular in a sporty way and had a calmer vibe about him, giving the impression that you could trust him with anything.
Pushing the thought aside, she looked at Joe and saw he was amused about something. ‘What is it?’
‘You seemed lost in thought then.’
‘Not really,’ she lied. ‘How’s the tractor?’
He thought for a moment. ‘It was fine when I dropped it off.’ He shook his head. ‘I don’t work there, if that’s what you were thinking. I just help occasionally in my spare time if my uncle needs me.’
Lettie was confused. ‘But I thought he had given you a job there.’ She tried to recall what he had told her. ‘Then you’re not a farmer?’
He shook his head. ‘Sorry, I meant he gave me work years ago when I first returned to the island. I haven’t worked there properly for years.’
‘You haven’t?’
‘No. I’m a firefighter.’
The image of Joe dressed up in his firefighting kit sprang into her mind. ‘Wow.’
He frowned. ‘Sorry?’
Mortified to have reacted without thinking, she laughed. ‘I was just, er, thinking.’
‘What about?’
Wanting to change the subject, Lettie said, ‘Isn’t it a dangerous job?’
He shrugged. ‘It can be, but we’re extremely well trained and don’t forget we have all the protective gear.’
‘Of course, you do.’ She felt her cheeks heating up and was relieved when just at that moment a door leading to the lavatories opened, until she realised it was Brodie who had stepped out. She was taken aback for a moment.
‘You all right?’ Joe asked, glancing in Brodie’s direction. ‘Someone I should be concerned about?’
Unsure what he meant by the question, Lettie frowned. ‘In what way?’
‘I caught him looking over. He’s not a jealous ex, or anything, is he?’
‘No, nothing like that,’ she insisted, unable to keep the amusement from her voice. Not that she would have minded Brodie having been her boyfriend at some time in the past. Brodie caught her eye as he passed their table and seemed hurt. She hoped he hadn’t realised she was talking about him.
‘Hi, Lettie,’ he said giving Joe a nod.
Joe smiled. ‘Hey, aren’t you the new vet?’
‘That’s right.’
‘How are you finding it around here?’
Lettie busied herself finding her lip salve in her small handbag as she listened to the small talk before realising Brodie must have sat at the table where the girl who had been looking at Joe was seated. She turned slightly to have a look and found the girl watching her.
Embarrassed to have been caught out, Lettie reached out to shake the girl’s hand. ‘Hi, I’m Lettie from Hollyhock Farm.’ She couldn’t help feeling envious that Brodie was out for a drink with someone else, albeit clearly not a date as they weren’t alone.
‘I’m Cathy.’
When the girl didn’t elaborate, Lettie gave her a smile before turning back to Joe who was watching her, an amused look on his face.
‘Shall we get out of here?’ he whispered. ‘It’s still light outside and we could go for a walk if you want.’
The place was filling up quickly but then it was the only pub in the village, so she knew she shouldn’t be surprised. She picked up her drink and finished before replying. ‘I’d like that.’
Joe smiled and drank his lager before standing and turning to Brodie, Cathy and their friend. ‘Nice to meet you. Hopefully we’ll see you again soon.’
She was unsure whether she liked the use of ‘we’, as if they were some sort of couple. But she reasoned that at least then Brodie might put any hint of jealousy she had shown in her face down to something else.
‘Yes, nice to see you, Brodie. Good to meet you all.’
As soon as they were outside, Lettie gave a sigh of relief.
‘Are you still thirsty?’ Joe asked.
‘I am a bit. It’s a warm evening.’ Lettie fanned her face with her hand and wondered what he was going to suggest. She was very tired but it was a beautiful summer evening and she was happy to agree to stay out for a bit before heading home.
‘So am I. I think we should pop to the shop and buy a couple of bottles of lager, or local cider if you prefer?’
She hadn’t had a cider in months. ‘Cider for me.’ She loved the local brew and now that he mentioned it, she decided that it would be a perfect way to spend part of the warm evening with its gentle breeze.
Shortly afterwards they walked back to her farm, deciding that the top field with its views of the sea on three sides would be the perfect place to watch the sunset while they sat quietly and drank the bottle each had chosen and ate the slightly stale French sticks and slab of Brie Joe had added to their basket.
‘This is perfect,’ he said once they were seated and had each fashioned a sandwich of sorts and opened their drinks.
‘I was thinking the same thing,’ she admitted.
They sat in silence for a while and Lettie tried to work out exactly how she felt about each of these new men who had both unexpectedly entered her life. Joe was gorgeous, but so was Brodie, although he seemed relaxed with Cathy. Joe was also fun to be with and she liked the spur-of-the-moment way he came up with fun ideas. It was refreshing how he simply came up with something new, like this walk and this evening snack.
He took a mouthful of his lager and swallowed. ‘I’m glad you chose to drive along the lane where I’d broken down,’ he said thoughtfully. ‘Today has turned out far better than it began.’
‘It has for me, too.’ Not the bit where Brodie was out with a beautiful woman, her thoughts nagged before she pushed them away. ‘I much prefer it out here to in the stuffy pub.’
‘You’re not the only one.’ He pointed out to the sea. ‘Look at the way the setting sun changes the colour of the water. I don’t think I’ll ever get bored of scenes like that.’
‘Nor me.’ She thought back to living on the mainland. ‘I loved my time in England, but being in a city where although there are beautiful sunsets high on some hills, it’s not quite the same as when it happens over the Channel.’
‘I agree. I lived in France. We were near the sea and often went to the beach to sit quietly and watch the sun going down.’
Lettie was intrigued to know more. She had a dentist when she was a child who commuted weekly from France to work on the island and several of her friends had lived there at one time or another. ‘Where did you live when you were there?’ she asked suddenly curious.
He nudged her with his shoulder. ‘So, you are interested in me. Good. I was beginning to think you might not be.’
Taken aback by his directness, Lettie narrowed her eyes. ‘I was only asking about your life in France.’
He turned to her, amusement in his dark eyes. ‘I’m only teasing. I lived near Biarritz. Have you heard of it?’
‘I have. My brother, Zac, went there on a trip to surf with some friends a few years ago.’
‘It’s well known for its surfing, although to be honest I never did much of that. I’d rather swim than surf.’
‘You said we. Were you there with a girlfriend?’ She hoped not. The last thing she wanted to do was inadvertently have drinks with someone’s boyfriend.
He nodded. ‘There was a significant other, but it didn’t work out.’
‘No?’
He shook his head and for a fleeting moment she saw pain cross his face. ‘We met when she came here to work at one of the hotels for the summer season a few years ago and I went back and moved in with her.’
He sighed. ‘We should have left it as a summer romance, but it’s easy in hindsight to know these things.’
‘I know that only too well,’ Lettie said not meaning to voice her thoughts out loud.
‘Same thing happened to you then?’
‘What? Oh, no. I met my ex, Scott, when I moved to London after university. We worked in the same company, but where I was in fashion, he worked in the finance part.’ She thought back to those exciting days when everything seemed so straightforward. ‘We lived together for a while until…’ She wished she hadn’t begun sharing about her relationship with Scott now that she had started.
‘Until?’ Joe leant forward looking concerned.
Lettie shrugged. ‘Basically, until I discovered that he wasn’t as placid as he had led me to believe. In fact, he became quite nasty when I tried to address how controlling I was finding his behaviour.’
She saw the muscle working in Joe’s jaw and sensed his anger on her behalf. ‘And how did it end? If you don’t mind me asking.’
‘Well, another colleague, Nessa, persuaded me to leave him and move into her flat. She and her boyfriend came to help me pack and she threatened Scott when he kicked off that if he didn’t let me go nicely then she would report him to HR and get him fired.’
‘And that worked?’
Lettie nodded. ‘It did, thankfully. He loved his work there and wouldn’t have dared let anything mess it up.’
‘It sounds like you’ve had a rough time of it.’
‘It was a little odd knowing I could bump into him at work each day. So when I discovered that my parents were wanting to travel and they needed someone to run the farm for them, and the firm was also offering redundancies, it seemed like the universe was trying to tell me something and I jumped at the opportunity to come home and leave London for good.’
He reached out and took her hand briefly before letting go. ‘I’m glad it all worked out for you in the end, Lettie.’
‘So am I.’ She picked up her drink, wanting to change the subject but unsure what to say.
Joe took a mouthful of drink and swallowed, staring down at the grass briefly. ‘Man, this is good stuff.’
Lettie gazed at the setting sun, happy to be single and not having to consider a partner when she was busy trying to learn all that she needed to on the farm.
‘Do you mind telling me what the story is between you and the vet guy?’
She had been enjoying the silence, but it was his turn to find out more about her, she supposed. ‘There isn’t a story.’
‘Really?’ Joe clearly found that hard to believe. ‘What, nothing? I thought I sensed chemistry between the two of you.’
‘Nope.’ She wasn’t lying she decided, wondering why the thought saddened her. She forced a smile and turned to look at Joe. ‘Why? Did you think there was?’
He knitted his eyebrows together thoughtfully. ‘I could have sworn there was something between you two.’ He sighed. ‘Maybe I’m losing my touch. I’m usually great at sensing these things.’
‘Well, you haven’t been this time.’ She smiled to show she was teasing.
‘I know, why don’t you invite me back here during the day?’
‘Sorry?’ She hadn’t expected him to say that.
‘You can show me around and then I can reciprocate.’
‘Invite me to your uncle’s place you mean?’
‘Exactly that.’ He lowered his voice as if there was anyone around to overhear their conversation. ‘They are very different places, so it’s not as if either one of us can pinch farming secrets.’
Lettie laughed. ‘Anyone would think we worked for Interpol, or different countries, or something.’ He was being ridiculous, but she was enjoying his company. She looked at his deep blue eyes ringed with long black lashes and his wavy black hair and wondered why she wasn’t desperate to kiss him. He was incredibly handsome and funny and certainly charismatic, but as much as he was all those things she suspected that if Brodie – quiet, unassuming, slightly serious Brodie – was here that she would be yearning to kiss him.
‘Well?’
Lettie frowned. ‘Well, what?’
‘When are you going to show me some of the things you’ve been doing on the farm?’
She pulled a face. ‘I wasn’t intending to, but if you insist on it, I suppose you could pop round next week sometime?’
He looked disappointed.
‘What’s wrong?’
He sighed deeply and looked forlorn. ‘I was hoping to come round tomorrow.’
So that was it. ‘Tomorrow isn’t a good day.’ She held up her bottle before taking a mouthful. ‘My parents leave to go on their cruise tomorrow and there’s bound to be all the last-minute panicking about passports, times to leave for the airport, check-in, and all that stuff, and I know my dad will be wanting to go over everything he thinks I need to know about, for the hundredth time.’
‘I can imagine there’ll be a lot to go through then. Well, I wouldn’t want to interrupt all that fun. OK then, the following day. I’ll wait for you to tell me what a good time will be.’
Lettie thought about her first day working alone. ‘I’m going to be working from early morning until the evening I imagine, so I’d better not commit to anything just yet. Let’s leave it for now and maybe catch up in a week or so, if that’s OK?’
He beamed at her. ‘No problem at all.’
‘I just wish I had more of a clue about what I was doing and don’t want to mess everything up.’
Joe put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her gently to him. ‘Good luck tomorrow. I’m sure you’ll be fine and will soon get the hang of running the farm.’ He put a finger under her chin and lifted it slightly so she caught his eye. ‘You might discover that it isn’t for you after all.’ He smiled. ‘Your bags could be packed and the car revving to take you away on the day your parents return for all you know.’
Lettie doubted it but he could have a point. She playfully pushed him away. ‘That won’t happen.’
‘Can you be certain of that?’
She knew she couldn’t but had no intention of entertaining the notion. She had made a promise to herself to make this work and that’s what she intended to do.